Victorian Artwork by Alexander Rippingille and its ties to the Emancipation of British slaves (1833)

1. ARTIFACT OF EMPIRE
1830s

2. Title - “To The Friends of Negro
Emancipation”
Creator - Alexander Rippingille
1796 – 1858
Type - Oil Painting
Date of Creation - ca. 1834
Content - Blacks celebrating the
Emancipation of slaves in British
dominions, August 1834.

3. • This painting shows the celebration of slaves in the West Indies,
a term used to collectively name most of the islands in the
Caribbean.
• Alexander Rippingille was a white, British citizen working as a
painter alongside his brother Edward in Bristol.
• To The Friends of Negro Emancipation? Not to the Negros
themselves?
• It sounds like a congratulations to those who fought for the
slaves, as opposed to a congratulations on being free for the first
time in generations.

4. “Emancipation Notice” -
on Tree Trunk
Act for the Abolition of
Slavery 1833
This painting represents
the triumph over slavery
in all colonies of the
British Empire,
beginning in 1834.

5. History:
• 1807: Act prohibiting the Slave Trade
• Slaves were still held, but not sold, within the British
Empire.
• In the 1820s, the abolitionist movement revived the
campaign against the institution of slavery.
• In 1823 the first Anti-Slavery Society was founded in
Britain.

6. • On 28 August 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act received Royal Assent.
• This paved the way for the abolition of slavery.
• On 1 August 1834, all slaves in the British Empire were emancipated, but they were
indentured to their former owners in an apprenticeship system that meant gradual
abolition.
• The apprenticeship system was disbanded in 1838 due to peaceful protests in
Trinidad.
• Already, the former slave population held a certain amount of sway in political
matters across the Empire.
• The government set aside £20 million for compensation of slave owners for their
"property“.
• It did not, however, offer the former slaves any sort of compensation.

7. Former Slaves seen here
striking off their chains and
burying them in the sand.
They did assume certain white
customs, for example, shirts and
suspenders, wooly hats and
jackets.

8. Linking this painting to what we’ve been
reading in class:
Jane Eyre:
• The character of Bertha Mason is
suggested to be a second generation
Creole.
• Her grandmother was probably a slave
in the West Indies who was used as a
supplement wife.
• Functions of a Creole.
• Slave Trade not really alluded to in
Jane Eyre.
Slave ship leaving the coast

9. Even after the slaves were emancipated, European outlooks on
their African neighbors were still frighteningly racist.
Even in 1931, almost 100 years later, Africans were still depicted
with jet-black skin, big pink lips and displayed in a submissive,
savage and primitive light.
Do they not seem to be portrayed almost as monkeys in these
images?

10. BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin_in_the_Congo#mediaviewer/File:Angry_King_in_Tintin.JPG
http://www.zephirin.eu/TINTIN/aucongo.HTML
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833
http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Slavery-Abolition-Act-1833.pdf
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/slavery/
http://library.artstor.org/library/iv2.html?parent=true
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in_the_United_States#mediaviewer/File:Birth-of-a-nation-klan-
and-black-man.jpg